R.I.P. Irv Gotti, co-founder of Murder Inc. Records

Irving Lorenzo Jr.—known to the music world by his professional name, Irv Gotti—has died. Through his work, first for Def Jam Records, and then as the co-founder (with his brother Chris) of Murder Inc. Records, Gotti was instrumental in the rise of a number of major artists, including DMX, Ja Rule, and Ashanti. With an eye for provocation (naming his label after an infamous murder-for-hire business, and engaging in decades-long feuds with the likes of 50 Cent, who, in typical fashion, crowed about his death on social media today), Gotti also had an undeniable eye for talent that shaped the world of music at the turn of the century. His death was confirmed earlier on Wednesday night by The Hollywood Reporter; Gotti was 54.

Born in Queens, Gotti got his start as a DJ, and it was while still using the stage name "DJ Irv" that he got his first major break: Producing one of the songs on Jay-Z's debut album, Reasonable Doubt. But Gotti made his first truly indispensable contribution to the rap world not as a producer, but as an exec. Working in A&R for Def Jam in the mid-'90s, Gotti pushed the label's leaders toward a young rapper who'd previously failed to catch fire with a debut album with Columbia Records, dragging them out to watch his friend freestyle through a wired-up mouth: Within a year, the resulting album, DMX's It's Dark And Hell Is Hot, went quadruple-platinum, all but saving Def Jam from a slide into obscurity. Overjoyed with their new golden goose (X would end up launching 5 No. 1 albums while at the label), Def Jam gave Gotti the go-ahead to found his own sub-label in 1999, and Murder Inc. Records was born.

Much of the success of Murder Inc. was tied to the rise of its most prominent artist, Ja Rule. Between his debut Venni Vetti Vecci in 1999, and Ashanti's self-titled debut three years later, Gotti solidified his reputation as both a hitmaker and a finder of talent. (Culminating in a six-month span from 2001 to 2002 when both Ja Rule's Pain Is Love and Ashanti went triple-platinum, dominating the charts.) But as the 2000s progressed, Gotti's fortunes began to dim. He and his brother were both charged with money laundering by New York authorities due to their friendship with noted drug kingpin Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, and while they were both acquitted, the musical world turned out to be just as judgmental. The platinum records dried up, and efforts to cultivate new audiences (including a move of the whole label to operate under Universal Motown) didn't produce positive results. Murder Inc. (later just known as The Inc. as it battled serious reputation problems) went functionally defunct in 2008.



After its demise, Gotti continued to work in and around music. (Notably, he produced a song on Kanye West's 2018 album Ye, his last credited work as a producer.) He also followed his interest in directing music videos into more formal Hollywood projects: Most prominently, he created the BET anthology series Tales, which took prominent songs and expanded them out to narrative short stories, and which ran on the network for three seasons from 2017 to 2022.